Politicians forced German prosecutors not to open an investigation into
allegations of torture raised in a complaint filed against Donald Rumsfeld,
former US Secretary of Defense, US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and
others, according a damning report by the top UN judicial independence
expert who urged German authorities to re-opening the case.

Germany’s Federal Prosecutor announced in April that she would
not proceed with an investigation against the high-ranking US officials
for torture and other war crimes committed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo.

The 400-page complaint was filed on November 14, 2006, by Berlin Attorney
Wolfgang Kaleck on behalf of 45 other international and national human
rights groups, 12 Iraqi citizens who were held in Abu Ghraib, and one
Saudi citizen still held at Guantánamo.

On 27 February 2006, CCR, FIDH and RAV submitted a petition to Mr. Despouy,
claiming that the case filed in 2004 on behalf of Iraqi citizens who were
tortured while detained at Abu Ghraib and other US detention centers,
was evidently dismissed by the German Federal Prosecutor to avoid offending
the US government.

It had been brought under Germany’s universal jurisdiction law,
the 2002 Code of Crimes against International Law, which provides for
the prosecution of war criminals wherever they are found and “even
when the offence was committed abroad and bears no relation to Germany.”

Today, on the opening day of the UN Human Rights Council’s fifth
session, Mr. Despouy noted with concern that the alleged perpetrators
of the violations referred in his allegation letter of 13 July 2006 sent
to the government of Germany, have still not been prosecuted in the United
States and that, on the contrary, new legislation has been adopted in
the US that practically impedes the prosecution of public officials suspected
of being responsible for those acts.

Wolfgang Kaleck, the Berlin attorney representing the victims and plaintiffs,
has filed a motion for reconsideration of the dismissal of the 2006 case
with the Office of the Federal Prosecutor, relying in part on the UN Special
Rapporteur’s report to the Human Rights Council.

Mr. Despouy writes in his report that he “hopes that this complaint
will be considered with the required independence, in accordance with
applicable international norms and standards.”

“While the primary obligation to investigate and prosecute war
crimes committed by US officials rests with the US government, it is abundantly
clear by now that no such prosecutions will be brought in the United States
against higher-ups in the chain of command," the three groups said
in a joint statement. "Furthermore, the Bush administration has refused
to join the International Criminal Court, precisely to shield its citizens
from prosecution in that court. This explains our resort to Germany’s
universal jurisdiction law in the present case."